Trump absolutely right to slap new tariffs on China

President Trump Opens a New Window. on Sunday announced additional incoming tariffs Opens a New Window. on China, reminding Beijing Opens a New Window. that its days of negotiating with weak counterparts are over, at least as far as it concerns the United States.

While Trump’s move may cause short-term stock market turbulence Opens a New Window. , it’s great news for U.S. national security and our economy over the longer term. China’s communist government must now recognize that time is short to avoid prolonged pain for its economic aggression and malfeasance.

Specifically, Trump announced on Sunday via Twitter that his administration will increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of imports from China from 10 percent to 25 percent, effective this Friday.

That would mean we will have the higher 25 percent tariff rate on a combined total of $250 billion worth of Chinese imports—46 percent of the $540 billion in goods we imported from China in 2018. Trump also threatened to slap tariffs on the remaining half of imports yet to face higher levies.

China’s ability to retaliate is extremely limited since our trade relationship is so lopsided and stacked in Beijing’s favor: we exported only $120 billion in goods to China last year—less than a quarter of what we imported from them.